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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26200501">The Underworld is tired, no time for war</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aamu16/pseuds/Aamu16'>Aamu16</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Saint Seiya, 聖闘士星矢: 冥王神話 | Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - No War, Because Hakurei has adopted like five kids and his brother has adopted Manigoldo, Crack Treated Seriously, Family Drama, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Crack, Found Family, Hades Sympathetic, Hades is tired, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Multi, Not Athena Sympathetic, Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas Manga Spoilers, Saints are a mess, Sasha is best girl, You can't change my mind, Yuzuriha is Best Girl, why aren't those two tags</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:20:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,105</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26200501</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aamu16/pseuds/Aamu16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Holy War has come, Athena is in the Sanctuary, the moon has been eclipsed, Hakurei of Altar has confirmed that all 108 specters have escaped. The Sanctuary is ready... but nothing happens, so Sasha sends Tenma and the Gold Saints to Naples to see what happens. Somehow, they end up in the Underworld.<br/>Specter: Why are you here?<br/>Tenma: GIVE ALONE BACK!<br/>Specter: Who?<br/>-<br/>Or: This is crack with plot. I can't take all the drama so, I went and fixed it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alone &amp; Pandora, Alone/Pegasus Tenma, Aries Shion/Libra Dohko, Gemini Aspros &amp; Gemini Defteros, Griffon Minos/Pisces Albafica, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Sasha &amp; Scorpio Kardia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Everything is Kairos’ fault</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Okay, here we're with the first chapter of this crazy thing me and my beta (@XianKar) thought about at ass o'clock in the morning after marathoning Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas and comparing it to the actual Greek mythology (let's be honest the only one that actually works is Hades, the rest of the Olympians are like "work? what's that? Do you eat it?")<br/>But here you have the content, in crack summary format, of course.</p><p>Alone: So, your dad is a titan and he kidnapped me, he also fucked up with the Gemini twins.<br/>Tenma: WHAT<br/>Pandora: And I'm his sister.<br/>Saints: WHAT</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Three years, no more, no less. Three years had been the time he had had to become a full-ledged Saint, and he did, he became a bronze Saint. He went from being a nameless, orphan from Italy to Tenma of Pegasus, one of Athena’s Saints, capable of making nature go against its course (Dohko made him kick a waterfall ‘til he managed to invert its course, the crazy man he was).</p><p>He had been fighting, training, devoting himself to be stronger to protect Alone and Sasha, and yet, yet, nothing. The Holy War was supposed to start but <em>fucking nothing</em>, in fact, it had become even more peaceful in the past five years since Athena, well, Sasha, came. At first, they just took it as a lucky break; then some kind of commotion had happened in Gemini’s temple and next thing Tenma knew was that a Specter or that’s what Yato said, had been trying to poison one of the Golden Saints (the one with the twin). Thankfully, no one died and the guy with the mask stopped wearing it. Tenma didn’t really understand how those two events were related but good for ex-mask guy (he had heard the female saint candidates gushing about his handsome face… girls, who knows, what they’re thinking about?).</p><p>After that everything was calm ‘til an old man had appeared in the doorstep demanding to see the Pope and Sasha. It ended up issuing an assembly with the Golden Saints, a pretty silver saint (Yato may have embarrassed himself in front of her quite a few times trying to show off, but that was old news). In the end, the old man stayed with the pretty silver woman by the Pope’s order, then he started to beat up people for bullying ex-mask guy (looks like they were trying to make him wear the mask again and the old man saw while he was going to Aries’ temple) blood flowed in rivers that day… or that’s how Yato described it. Tenma was quite happy to see that someone finally cared for the poor guy. After beating people up the old man had gone to the Pope’s chamber and scolded —yes you hear that right— <em>scolded</em> the Pope for allowing people to do that to a “promising youth", looks like what dealt the Pope a fatal blow was that the old man was “very disappointed in him” and that “probably Athena-sama was too” (Dohko told him that one, he had been so bewildered that he didn’t know what to do with the info, so he dumped it on Tenma).</p><p>The next two years everything was silent, so the Pope thought that there could be more cases like the one of the Gemini’s Saint happening and started to look for spies, at said Gemini’s Saint’s advise (why did the Pope now listened to Gemini’s Saint was beyond most of the Sanctuary) but Tenma could more or less understand. Dohko told him later the story of the Gemini’s temple’s twins. He also wanted to punch both the Specter and the traitorous rat that the twins’ teacher was outed as— the mask was a pretty good indicator that something was very, very wrong with that guy but whatever.</p><p>Finally, he got his cloth, Pegasus, just at the cusp of the Holy War… or that’s how it was supposed to be. He had been with Sasha, right at the time when the purple moon rapidly disappeared from the sky, the Holy War had started.</p><p>The next morning, the weirdest thing ever happened. Three sliver saints came back from Italy and talked about how they were the only ones who went back because the others had been knocked out and had no idea of what the hell happened. They had told Sasha and Pope about how only a woman, who had identified herself as Pandora, and a strong Specter with a winged surplice had been sitting ducks in an old cathedral in the forest (and Tenma had very much hoped that it wasn't the cathedral he was thinking about). They defeated them all and threw them out with a message for the Sanctuary: “The Underworld is too busy, there’ll be no war this time”.</p><p>What.</p><p>Sasha, the Pope, and the rest of the Saints (Tenma included) had literally gapped. Well, the message had been a bit longer but they all got stuck in that phrase (Tenma was quite happy about it after the shock had worn out, but that happiness didn’t last long). The Pope then had resolved to send Dohko, the Aries Saint, Yato, some other saints he didn’t really know and himself to their village. In the coverage of the night, they ran through the Apennines and into the forest of his childhood.</p><p>They soon reached the forest cathedral.</p><p>They infiltrated, or they tried to, but a woman was sitting in the front row of the chapel and the clinks and clanks of well-maintained cloths were still deafening in the middle of the cathedral at night. Even her sigh was somewhat loud. She turned, and her long black hair fell from her back to her shoulder and spilled a little over the bench, her skin glowed in the candlelight. Slowly, she rose.</p><p>“Good night, Saints of Athena.” Her voice was cold marble and detached boredom, she looked at them like looking at a stray mutt that kept begging for scarps. “My name is Pandora, Lord Hades’ lieutenant. I thought that Bennu Kagaho and I had been clear enough for you to understand that there’s no meaning to you coming for us. We shall not fight.”</p><p>“If that was true, why are you, general of Hades’ army, still here?” Shion, the Aries Gold Saint, asked (rather rudely in Pandora’s opinion).</p><p>"Lieutenant." Pandora empathized. “ And I have been tasked to await one of you.” She answered, rather annoyed by the fact itself. Her pale lips were set on a displeased line and her brows furrowed, her dark eyes glared down at them from the altar, she clearly hated to have been made wait. “I thought you would show better courtesy since we didn’t kill any of your silver saints.”</p><p>“Oh~, so the lady wants courtesy. Sure, we can do that. Have some wine?” Dohko joked as he adopted a defensive position. Tenma wasn’t the most combative guy out there, no matter what it looked like in the Sanctuary, he had objectives that had led him to be combative: protecting himself, protecting Sasha, protecting Alone, becoming a Saint… all those needed him to be strong, be ready to fight at any given moment, especially with how gentle Alone was (okay, he may love him the way he was and never wanted him to change, but the bullies just saw his pretty face and sweet smile and went down on him like vultures).</p><p>“No need to drink with uninvited guests.” Pandora haughtily replied, and okay, she would be a sight for sore eyes if she wasn’t so goddamn terrifying. “Bring here a young boy called Tenma! Son of Partita!”</p><p>“Why do you know my mom’s name?!” Tenma really, <em>really</em>, couldn’t help himself, and Dohko would have decked him if he wasn’t so damn surprised himself.</p><p>All at once, Pandora’s demeanor changed completely, like flipping a coin. She looked stunned, then took a candleholder and speed-walked towards him, Shion tried to stop her but a weird guy with shiny black armor came out of absolutely nowhere and put himself between the Golden Saints and Pandora. Before the new guy did anything, Pandora had reached Tenma, she put the candleholder straight and looked at his face with a critical eye, a strange, fragile silence enveloped the cathedral again.</p><p>“You have Partita’s eyes… and Kairos’ awful hair.” She noted, only half pleased with his appearance. Then, the impossible happened: Pandora pouted. “Even though you were so cute when you were born…”</p><p>“What the fuck?” Yato asked softly, but in the silence of the cathedral, it sounded so much louder. Now, don’t misunderstand, they were all thinking the same (yes, the specter included).</p><p>“No matter, you need to come with me.” Pandora swiftly changed gears and tried to take Tenma’s hand, but Dohko managed to get between them.</p><p>“Um, young lady, how about you explain what is going on here?” Libra’s saint nervously asked.</p><p>“Lady,” Shion started, but he would be lying if he didn’t say that he was trying hard not to shiver (never in all his years of training would he have imagined that he would address a specter (?) with such polite tone). “We have come here in peace. A bit of information would be dearly appreciated.” The Tibetan finished, and if Bennu noticed that he was gritting his teeth, he didn’t comment.</p><p>“Alone promised to finish his painting.” Pandora’s answer didn’t make much sense to most of them, but Tenma looked like he had just chucked down several cups of coffee at once.</p><p>“Why do know you Alone?! Did you do something to him?!” Tenma asked frantically, almost throwing himself to shake her, but Dohko acted as a wall between them.</p><p>“Calm down Tenma!” Yato tried to advise while the Libra saint held him back.</p><p>“Tenma.” A soft voice came from the far left side of the room, it made the people in the room a pause. But the biggest reaction came from the Pegasus saint who almost fell of how quickly he turned. His eyes lighted up at the sight of his dear friend and an infectious smile spread in his face, he was running towards the blond long before Dohko could try to stop him.</p><p>“Alone!” Tenma exclaimed as he hugged the blue-eyed teen tight, and spun with him a few times. Tenma wouldn’t say aloud but Alone had become even more beautiful in the few years they had expended apart, a little thought about bullies came up but was eclipsed by the seer happiness of seeing the young painter.</p><p>Alone chuckled and let Tenma spin him around for a couple of turns, then he patted his shoulder and asked to be put down, Tenma immediately obliged but kept his grip on Alone’s forearms. Dohko felt happy for his disciple since the child he had clearly loved all this time was as pure and innocent as before, no trace of Hades’ dark cosmo in him yet (and wasn’t that fortunate? He didn’t think Tenma would agree to fight his obvious crush). On the other side, Shion was more concerned (and curious) about Pandora and Kagaho’s unhappy expressions, if they were the ones that said that they had been waiting for Tenma to reunited with Alone, shouldn’t they be smiling or feeling smug about whatever plan they had traced?</p><p>“What are you doing here?” Tenma, now a little calmer, asked as he unconsciously scanned Alone from head to toe. “Did they kidnap you? What about the kids from the orphanage?!” Tenma grabbed Alone’s forearms with more force, almost shaking him (Shion tensed as he saw the scepter growl and Pandora scowled).</p><p>“Tenma…”Alone’s voice trembled like the salted droplets that rapidly formed in his blue pupils. “They— Anna and the rest…” Alone let out a little sob and everyone turned to look at the Underworld’s dwellers.</p><p>“Why is it that every time something bad happens to you saints is us the ones at fault?” Pandora asked, her tone was disdainful and her hands flew to her hips, she looked every bit of the angry young lady she should have been.</p><p>“Bandits came down the mountains and the people of the village closed the doors.” Alone’s tone was a little hoarse, a little angry, and very much sad as he dried his tears on his sleeve and separated from Tenma. “They came into various houses searching for money and food, I— I wasn’t there to help them, I went to ask the villagers to open the door… but they wouldn’t and I—. It was too late when I came back.”</p><p>“That’s—!” Tenma fisted his hands as rage wrecked through his body, he wanted to kill them… he wanted to kill them all! What use was being a Saint when he couldn’t even protect the children he had grown up with?! What protector of justice—?! Dohko closed his eyes and sent a small prayer for the souls of those children, humans could be just as cruel as specters sometimes… a moment of realization punched him in the gut. Slowly, he turned to look at Pandora and Bennu.</p><p>“What?” Pandora asked, he was creepily starring at her and was getting goosebumps, why couldn’t saints be normal for once and ask instead of doing that intense glaring thing?</p><p>“What did you offer him?” The Aries saint had reached the same conclusion as his friend, that they have offered Alone a way to bring back the children or something similar. It made Tenma look back to his comrades, distracted from his grief briefly, and then to Pandora and Bennu.</p><p>“We didn’t offer him anything. He’s Lord Hades’ eyes on Earth, so we protected him.” Bennu explained, it was concise, sane, and made sense to normal people. After all, who wanted to just stay in the Underworld and look at dead people all day? The Sun was very nice, so were the Moon and the sea, and the sunrise, and the sunset… as well as many other natural phenomena that didn’t happen in the Underworld. ‘Forgive our trespasses if we wanted to at least see it every 200 and something years’ the Specters ironically thought. Plus they usually dealt with dead people so they tried to be proficient in the use of common sense, since it was what most of them understood. Pandora thought that if Chrono had sealed Kairos better most of this would have been so much cleaner (and she wouldn’t have lost her little brother for so long) and scowled, thinking of Karios made her want to destroy something and the Saints were here... she couldn't though. Because maybe Pandora was a selfish woman, but she was on thin ice already with Alone, Hades’ lieutenant wasn’t risking her chance of gaining her little brother's affections.</p><p>“They’re right Tenma, I have been living here for the past few weeks and they have been nothing if not welcoming. Though I would have appreciated if Pandora had sent a letter or two before appearing out of nowhere…” Alone smiled a bit as Pandora blushed and stubbornly turned her head away, it wasn’t her fault that Lord Hades hadn’t woken up sooner, okay?! “I wanted to give the children farewell and she wanted to get to know me so… we made a deal, I spend some time in the Underworld as Hades’ court’s painter and I can visit the children.”</p><p>‘That statement is wrong on so many levels that I don’t even know where to start.’ The saints thought collectively.</p><p>“Letters?” Tenma asked, coming down his stupor. But Alone had no plans of staying still and, as many times before, he walked away knowing that Tenma soon would follow. And follow they did (yes, because they’re <strike>nosy</strike> <strong>worried</strong> about their fellow saint and the <strike>beautiful</strike> poor soul that the Specters had tricked —nothing further away from reality, but <em>Saints</em>—).</p><p>“Um,” Alone nodded as he quickly opened the curtains and letting the pale light of the sunrise stream inside, still blue, as if the night was unwilling to hand over the Earth to the clear summer skies they had been having these last few days. “Did you know? Chrono had a little brother, his name was Kairos, the titan of the ‘right time’, he erased most of the mortals’ knowledge of him though.” Alone started.</p><p>To be honest, Tenma and the others didn’t have a clue of what he was saying or why was he talking about a <em>titan</em>, of all things; but maybe the blond was nervous. Now, Pandora sure seemed to know, if her fierce scowl was anything to go by (and oh boy, if only they knew how many bones she had to pick with that asshole); Dohko could almost feel the hairs of his nape stand up.</p><p>“Well, since he’s a titan he can’t actually die…” Alone had picked up his palette and looked at Tenma from behind the half-finished canvas, his smile was a little sad, a little tired and tad nostalgic… Tenma wanted to hug him and protect him forever from whatever made him smile like that. “Tenma, step closer to the window, yes? I like the lighting that the sunrise gives to your eyes.” Alone asked, it was Tenma’s turn to blush like mad… and to the other saints to want to punch him in the face. They wanted a lover too! ‘Damnit! Why does Tenma gotta be so lucky?! First Lady Athena, now this beauty! Leave something for the rest goddamnit!’ The younger (and single) saints cried bitter tears inside (if Tenma felt killing intent from most of his comrades and the specters, he sure as hell shuddered).</p><p>“Kairos kept reincarnating, again and again. He grew up to hate the concept of siblings, well, only ‘older sibling’s in fact; he made sure to wreck every single brotherly relationship he ever came across… and one of them was Pandora’s and mine.” Slowly, very carefully, Alone started painting Tenma’s eyes. He had gotten the red color he had been searching for after all those years, to think he had to go to the Underworld to get such a vivid color… he laughed at the irony. “Did you know Tenma? I was stolen.”</p><p>Tenma gasped and quickly turned to look at Pandora, who was now sporting a smug look on her face, her arms crossed over her chest and her chin pointing upwards, already gloating of her rights as Alone’s true sister.</p><p>“Alone, you’re kidding, right?” Tenma begged the blond. But Alone looked at him dead in the eye and raised an eyebrow, then Tenma knew that like it or not, Pandora was his sister (they had the same ‘<em>are you an idiot?</em>’ look, but only Kagaho realized that).</p><p>“Don’t cry yet, there’s more.” Alone stopped him, turning to keep painting (he had to take advantage of Tenma’s wide-open eyes after all)… where was his sweet Alone?! This wasn’t him, okay?! Tenma wanted to cry a little (and yes may look a <strike>bit</strike> lot like something Dohko would do but excuse him, he had spent <em>years</em> with the older man day in and day out, it would be stranger if he didn’t catch some… Dohkoish traits). “To get access to me, well, us,” Alone pointed with a red brush to Pandora and then himself. “He needed something more than a little while as he did with the Gemini twins in the Sanctuary—“</p><p>“WHAT?” Shion exploded, he was quick to the uptake but they thought it had been a specter (not mentioning why on Earth did this kid knew anything about <em>that</em>!) not the fucking Titan of time himself! —then there was Asmita and how had he <em>fucking pulled the curse straight out of Aspros heart.</em> What was up with the Virgo saints anyway?</p><p>“Oh, sorry; weren’t you aware of his curse to Gemini?” Alone asked, a little worried if his eyes and expression were to be believed. The blond looked ready to go full out mother-hen mode on Shion and the rest of the distressed saints (it didn’t matter that they were older than him, he would do it, <em>watch him</em>).</p><p>“Ah, no; we—,” Shion coughed a little to clear his voice, it wouldn’t do to worry such a young kid… (if Pandora side-eyed him like she knew what he was thinking he was going to ignore it, he was a saint! It was his job to take care of others!) “We knew, but, how did you know?”</p><p>“Lord Hades got fed up with him and threw him into Tartarus.”</p><p>…Ok, that—, that was nice of him. None of the saints ever thought they would ever call Hades, of all beings, <em>nice</em>, but here we’re.</p><p>“‘Lord’?” Tenma parroted, as Alone was finishing his eyes and he would have moved closer but Alone’s ‘Don’t move.’ stopped him.</p><p>“Um, since I was supposed to be his host this time around but he’s too busy, he is planning to use my art, to see what the Earth is like now. I don’t think I’m that good, but Pandora insisted.” Finally, Alone put the brush down and gave a satisfied sigh.</p><p>“WHAT?”</p><p>Alone ignored the exclamation this time, as he looked at the sun, now shining bright on the cloudless summer sky, it was a beautiful blue, he wondered if he would replicate it… maybe Lord Hypnos would let him pick some flowers from the Elysium. He wanted to engrave this sky in his eyes, for he wouldn’t be seeing it again any time soon.</p><p>“Alone! What do you mean you’ re—!” Tenma tried to keep asking, but his friend cut him soon enough, he didn’t want to make this sadder than it had to be.</p><p>“Well, about what I was talking before, Kairos needed to get close to us so he married the woman fated to give birth to Pegasus… Kairos is your father Tenma.” Alone got up and put the finished canvas under the window. His masterpiece, Tenma’s portrait (he would have liked to make one of Sasha too, but his little sister wasn’t someone who could ever as to sit down and peacefully paint now…). Alone gave Tenma a pained smile as Bennu Kagaho and Pandora disappeared from behind the saints and reappeared behind him, the brunette opened a path to the Underworld by stomping on one of the tiles. “Goodbye, Tenma.”</p><p>The saints were petrified for a few seconds, enough for Pandora to open the path, but not long enough that Tenma didn’t try to reach for Alone’s hand as he stepped on the dark stairs and disappeared as if instead of stairs it had been water.</p><p>“ALONE!!!!!!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Aspros is surrounded by children (and old fools) in his opinion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Shion: They said that the Underworld was busy and had no time for war.</p><p>Manigoldo: Are you sure you lot weren’t on crack?</p><p>Great Pope: Let’s go to the Underworld to see what happens.</p><p>Aspros: I’m surrounded by idiots.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tenma and the rest went back to the Sanctuary with pained hearts and confused minds. Well, Dohko had to literally knock Tenma out and carry him so the young man didn’t throw himself into the warp gate (no came back from the underworld and there was a reason why that happened).</p><p>Shion reported to Sage and Athena while Tenma recuperated in the infirmary with Yato as his company (did Dohko trust Tenma to not go charging into the forest cathedral again? Hell no).</p><p>“Nii-san was—.” Sasha gasped as tears rapidly pooled in her eyes, she could still feel the warmth of Alone’s hand on her hair and the sweetness of his voice. Sasha knew that everyone would think that Alone wouldn’t harm a fly, and it was true, but despair changed people and if the news of the children of the orphanage that she hadn’t seen in years shook her, her brother was surely devastated. Humans changed when they fell in despair. They could take Luco as a perfect example: the man had always been a benefactor to the Sanctuary, even if he hadn’t liked them due to the ‘Red bond’ (and Sasha had scorned the ritual herself, not as Athena, goddess of war that created weapons out of human beings for she was the founder of such tradition along with the First Pope; but as a human). Luco had been robbed of his parents and brother for a Holy War that his brother wouldn’t live to see, and then he had almost been robbed of his son by a fever…</p><p>It was obvious that Luco would grasp any lifeline he could find if it meant to save the only person he had left. Sasha had wondered, during the hours where she had doubted the most the soundness of their cause if she would have done the same for Kardia or Alone or Tenma or even Sisyphus (even if she still resented him at times, the Sagittarius’ Saint had been nothing sort of a paternal figure).</p><p>Then there was the Pandora issue, or more like Kairos’ issue. Sasha didn’t know what to do, but if you asked her, she could tell you a few things that she wanted to do, no matter how stupid: like slapping Pandora or charge into the Underworld with Kardia and mess with her big brother’s employer (?), were two of them. But Sasha had a good head on her shoulders, so she sat, looked the part, and filtered everything she didn’t consider important (if there was a part of her brain that was screaming and about to foam through her mouth… well, she was a teenager! Physically, anyway). Sage <em>did</em> grab the throne for support though (and Hakurei’s jaw had reached the ground, or would soon).</p><p>“Are you sure there wasn’t some kind of drug or weird illusion trick involved in all this?” Manigoldo asked and Shion glared at him as if he was a particularly disgusting insect. Sasha would never tire of their antics (they fought like brothers, no matter what they said).</p><p>“No.” Shion curtly answered. But seeing the Pope interested he could only elaborate. “There were only two specters in the cathedral, the town was undamaged and the other saints’ report was the same.”</p><p>“I also recognized the kid’s cosmo and Tenma would never mistake it. After our encounter with the specters, we went to the town to corroborate the kid’s version.” Dohko supported his friend.</p><p>“Before or after you left Pegasus unconscious?” Aspros asked. There was an awkward silence after that (no, Kardia’s poorly hidden laugh does not count), Dohko coughed a little before answering.</p><p>“…After.”</p><p>And you’ll surely ask what did Aspros have against the poor boy right? (No, Dohko, 18 is not enough age to stop Aspros from treating you like a kid). Well, in fact, he didn’t have anything against Dohko but one of the things he first taught all the golden saints after they got ordered was to never reduce their manpower if they could avoid it. Dohko in particular, though having a good heart, was too short-tempered and tended to talk with his punches rather than his words (and didn’t that give him headaches in the past?) so, if Pegasus really couldn’t be convinced to act rationally then it would have been the right decision, but Aspros wanted proof of that (because we all know what happens when you just trust people not to abuse their authority right?). And yes, he was still bitter as hell about the Pope only investigating the issue of his twin having been mistreated, abused, and beaten for years, as well as have been made to wear a thrice-damned mask like he was an animal, just because the Pope trusted his subordinates and didn’t inquire in their decisions. He was <em>petty</em>, deal with it.</p><p>“In case you doubt our judgment we can call the rest of the saints who came with us.” Shion didn’t like people messing with Dohko not even one of the most powerful gold saints.</p><p>“Shion, do you think that the Pegasus saint could have been talked down?” Aspros asked instead, he wanted people to respect the damned protocol for once. He wasn’t asking for the stars here, really.</p><p>“I don’t think so,” Shion answered, he had provoked Aspros but the older saint had instead asked for his opinion in the matter.</p><p>“Why is that?” Aspros kept insisting in reasons and proof, but let’s be honest, he was surrounded by children.</p><p>“Who the fuck cares?! It’s already done!” Kardia exploded and, in a way, he was right. You can’t change the past, and asking for explanations was a waste of time with all the ‘The Underworld is busy’ bullshit. Even if Degel gave him the ‘behave or else’ glare, the Aquarius saint had his ways to make him regret (mainly throwing him to the almost frozen lake in his temple, and no, it wasn’t a pleasurable experience no matter his heart-condition).</p><p>“Kardia is right, let’s leave this issue for another time.” Sage stopped Aspros from furthering questioning the younger saint but the Gemini saint’s judgmental eyes landed on him and reminded him of all the times he had fucked up (Sage was grateful for the helmet since they couldn’t see his red cheeks, shame didn’t look good on him but that depended on who you asked; Aspros would have been delighted). Aspros took a deep breath and calmed down; now, don’t think this was the last you would see of him (just you wait ‘til they asked for his advice). Fortunately, neither Dohko nor Shion smirked secretly, their masters had taught them well… even if Manigoldo almost snickered, Albafica glared at him though, so he sobered up pretty quickly. “We need to find a way to discover what they’re plotting.”</p><p>“What do you want to do?” Sasha asked. She had a bad feeling as if she had a rock weighting down her stomach.</p><p>“We’ll infiltrate in the Underworld, Lady Athena.” Sage declared.</p><p>Silence. That brought utter and complete silence.</p><p>“Do you have any self-preserving instinct left?” Aspros asked. ‘<em>Or is it that you want to get us killed?</em>’ he didn’t say but his face did all the talking; it caused an uproar from the rest of them, except Asmita and Degel. Aspros knew there was a reason why he liked the other two, they weren’t eager to die and, really, that only made them normal people (was he reaching for the stars here? Not really).</p><p>“Aspros!” Sisyphus exclaimed as Sage retreated a step in surprise, even if Athena was looking at the Sage like he was the crazy one.</p><p>“Hey! Just because you’re an asshole doesn’t mean you can talk like that to the Pope!” Manigoldo quickly jumped to defend his master.</p><p>Aspros looked at them in the eye, one by one, but they were more shocked by him calling out the Pope’s bullshit than the actual crazy idea that Sage had.</p><p>“Are you all telling me that you would rather go down to the Underworld, the place no one had ever come back from, than stay here, reinforce our defenses, train our people and evacuate Rodorio?” Aspros asked. He could see that Degel approved of his idea as Albafica and Aldebaran did. He was pretty sure that mentioning Rodorio was what did the trick, but Manigoldo was still foaming from the mouth and Kardia looked near to punching his face in for suggesting not diving right into the suicide route (the man may have a heart condition and he may be living on borrowed time, but the rest was not, just look at Regulus! He was 15!). It was in times like this that Aspros seriously questioned why the hell hadn’t he taken Defteros and bag with their combined things and hightailed out of this mountain of suicidal assholes when he had the chance.</p><p>Asmita patted his shoulder with sympathy… How fucked must you be for <em>Asmita of Virgo</em> to show you sympathy?</p><p>Nevertheless, they were going to the Underworld, because the Pope said so and Hakurei wanted to punch one of the two gods in the face (and he was worried about his kid, but Shion didn’t seem to realize, the crazy teenager he was). The decision is a tough one since it’s a delicate matter, in the end: Manigoldo, Albafica, Kardia, Shion y Dohko are to be sent along with Pegasus since he seemed the best chance they had to bring Hades supposed host back. Manigoldo was an obvious choice due to his Seikishi, Kardia offered himself voluntary, Albafica wouldn’t have to worry about his comrades and he was the highest toxicity among them (and didn’t that hurt?), Shion’s crystal wall was a great defense and Dohko was basically Pegasus’ handler. Aspros had wanted to argue that those were too many golden saints together and they would lose almost half their powerhouses if it actually came to a fight (if they managed to piss the King of the Underworld enough…); but, as usual, people didn’t like listening to the voice of reason.</p><p>Soon after Pegasus woke up and, not even a half a day after, they went to search for the entrance to the Underworld. Aspros was busy trying to catch his brother’s newest rabbit, it ate part of his parchment, and promised to make it into stew since it was so plump (then Defteros came and gave his big brother the best sad face and puppy eyes, Aspros didn’t touch the rabbit).</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Athena’s diplomatic Unit (Ha.)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Specter: Why are you here?<br/>Tenma: GIVE ALONE BACK!<br/>Specter: Who?<br/>Lune: I'm going to assume you're a diplomatic unit.<br/>Manigoldo: And if we aren't?</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>While the golden and bronze saints searched the way to go to the Underworld, the Great Pope reassured Athena, the poor girl hadn’t taken it well. If only they had actually asked Sasha, she would have said that it was a bad idea and they should go with Aspros’ suggestion, but no one ever asked. She was only the figure that inspired the saints (did she want to beat Sage a little with Nike? Well, maybe… Kardia wasn’t a great influence exactly). But could she do that? No, she was taught better than that… even if sometimes it seemed like an excellent idea. To be honest, she had half a mind to just go herself with Aspros, Defteros, Asmita, and Degel as a diplomatic unit to the Underworld and settle things (and bring back her big brother, fuck Pandora, and whoever agrees with her).</p><p>Ah, she needed Degel’s calming tea ASAP.</p><p>The teen made her way towards the 11<sup>th</sup> house, where they had (of course) left the best diplomat among the golden saints (well, at least they hadn’t sent El Cid, he looked calm and all, but he had quite the grudge against the sleep deities<sup>1</sup>… he and Hakurei bonded over that).</p><p>As she entered the temple, Degel bowed to her from the waist down, he was in full armor. Sasha waved her hand and started small chatter about this and that, the weather mostly. Then they went deep into the Aquarius’ temple all the way to the freezing pool where a low table and a few seats around it stood, Sasha sat down gracefully. Degel brought the teapot with hot delicious herbal tea, Athena’s persona went flying out of the window the moment he set down the teapot on the stone table.</p><p>“<em>This</em> is going to be a <em>disaster</em>.” Sasha finally buried her head in her hands, Kardia had been a big brother for her ever since that trip to Mexico and meeting Calvera<sup>2</sup>, so of course, she had become close to Degel (when searching for Kardia her first place to search were the training grounds, the second was Aquarius temple).</p><p>“Probably.”</p><p>“We’re going have to fix it.”</p><p>“As usual.”</p><p>“Why couldn’t they listen to Aspros?!”</p><p>“For the same reason, they don’t listen to common sense.”</p><p>“Ugh. Give me tea, Degel,” Sasha asked, finally lifting her head. Ah, she had a headache, how typical. “Or I feel that I’m going to go crazy.”</p><p>“Which ‘crazy’ are we talking about?” Degel asked amusedly, as he put the steaming cup of tea in front of the teenager he had grown to love like a sister (sister-in-law, if Sasha managed to pull Kardia’s head out of his suicidal ass).</p><p>“The kind of ‘crazy’ that has me beating the Pope to a pulp and marching myself into the Underworld to smooth over whatever ruckus they make,” The young goddess clarified. Drinking three-quarters of the beverage in a single go right after, then Sasha looked into Degel’s blinking eyes and downed the rest.</p><p>“…Take a second one.” The Frenchman recommended as he refilled her cup.</p><p>‘<em>Best decision this week.’</em> Sasha decided as she saw the saint obviously trying to calm her down but sharing her dismay about the decisions of the Great Pope. The teenage girl just hoped that nothing happened before she managed to calm down and banish all thoughts of pummeling Sage.</p><p>Meanwhile, the golden saints and Tenma fought to reach the entrance of the Underworld on Earth, Prussia… well, more like Tenma was half-a-step away from throwing himself to said wrap door.</p><p>(<em>“Oh, dear! You must be Partita’s son!” The kind-looking but old maid exclaimed as she saw him step through the threshold. Tenma, stunned, nodded as she called others kind-but-old-looking ladies. “Girls! Partita’s son is back!”</em></p><p>
  <em>“Oh my!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Really?!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Oh, he looks so handsome! Just like his father!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Soon they were flooded by them, they took turns interrogating him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“How is Partita? It’s been such a long time since we saw her! Did your father convince her to leave?” One of them asked as another tutted disapprovingly.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I know it was a big mess when the madam died, but that man shouldn’t have taken the only joy we had left! Lady Pandora got so lonely too!”</em>
</p><p><em>“He was not good news! I told you all! Look at him, so young and yet so thin! He must not have taken good care of the boy!” The ginger granny exclaimed, angry at the father Tenma didn’t even know he had ‘til… a week ago? Maybe?</em>)</p><p> If he heard one more maid commenting about what a pity it was that his mom quitted or asked where his (good-for-nothing) father was, he swore—! Kardia had ended the chatter and asked loudly and rudely about the wrap door’s whereabouts… it didn’t go well. Finally, Shion managed to coax the old ladies into talking, they asked if there have been anything out of place, and after a long, <em>long</em>, conversation… they managed to learn about some ‘strange disappearances’.</p><p>(<em>“Um, Albafica, my beautiful friend, let me hide behind you?” Manigoldo asked as he surveyed that the </em>nice <em>old ladies didn’t come to harass him too. He pitied Shion a bit, the kid was being swarmed like the fluffy sheep he supposedly was, but he wasn’t crazy enough to go meddle. Now, don’t get Manigoldo wrong; he was no coward, but those old ladies had </em>sharp<em> tongues and ouch. If verbal trashing did the trick with specters they alone were enough to fight and win the Holy war without even breaking a sweat.</em></p><p><em>Albafica, on the other side, threw him a look so flat that Manigoldo felt years of his lifespan decrease.</em>)</p><p>The investigation leads them to a secluded chapel in the west garden, behind the confessional, was a door used by the priests to exit said chapel, but none actually came out. The saints reached the chapel soon enough (after convincing the old ladies that Lady (<em>shiver</em>) Pandora had hired them to guard them in her absence). There, a black and purple viscous liquid-like passage awaited them, Tenma was the first to wear his cloth and pass through, much to Dohko’s dismay and Kardia’s complaint (yes, he wanted to go first, got a problem with that?).</p><p>As they passed through the portal a nauseous feeling almost overcame them, they wanted to puke but an Underworld palace (it looked like a palace or at least one of their temples, just… more gloomy and dark… and creepy, that too) was neither the moment nor the place to show weakness (Manigoldo did curse them and their “cheap tactics” though). Soon after they heard the click-clack of low-heeled shoes, someone was coming from the other end of the hallway (well, they assumed they were in a hallway since… there were columns and a door at the end). As they peeked out of their hiding place (shadows and columns make good hiding places, and they’re not stupid enough to not take cover after hearing the enemy approach).</p><p>Kardia jumped in the specter’s way, they were a woman, she was wearing all black, almost like a nun’s outfit, but her face was covered by a black lace veil. Albafica recognized her as one of the Underworld dwellers from that time he fought Luco<sup>3</sup> (ah, as expected it still hurt… thinking of his uncle, he meant, <strike>maybe he would meet him here</strike>).</p><p>“Wait, Kardia!” Albafica exclaimed, seeing that the Greek was about to strike her with his needle. The Scorpio’s Saint could barely stop himself but managed somehow. The woman didn’t even twitch, she just stopped neatly in front of Kardia somehow it felt like she was judging him behind that veil, but dead people don’t do that…, right? (Somewhere else, the three judges of the Underworld, whose job was judging dead people, sneezed at the same time). “She’s a servant here, we need her conscious.”</p><p>“Hey! Do you know where’s Alone?!” Tenma demanded, but he was neatly ignored by the rest (maybe Dohko decked him again because that’s not the way to ask Underworld dwellers).</p><p>“Tsk.” Kardia clicked his tongue, because yes, his plan was storming into every fucking room ‘til they found Specters to fight, get into Hades’ palace and <em>then</em> die fighting (no, he wasn’t feeling guilty about dying over Sasha and Degel… <em>he was not, okay?!</em>). That was the way he wanted to go: fighting, and, if he had his way, standing. Maybe he could still storm somewhere… “You! Where’s your boss?” Kardia screamed to her face, brandishing his long scarlet nail. (If they could see the dead woman face, they would find a face that screamed: ‘Thou do not impress me’).</p><p>“Kardia!” Shion and Albafica exclaimed at the same time (way to get intel!).</p><p>“Well, well, no worries people. I’ll handle it, I tell you!” Manigoldo finally spoke, as he approached the woman in black. “Good day young lady, I’ll make a deal with you.” He started. Manigoldo only stopped five steps away from her… not that she reacted much though. “If you tell us where your boss is, I’ll free you with my Sekishiki, deal?”</p><p>The black nun jumped back.</p><p>Okay… they weren’t expecting that. Manigoldo blinked a few times, trying to understand why she would jump back instead of jumping <em>ahead</em>, towards him, to try and grasp her salvation from Hell.</p><p>“I quite enjoy my job; therefore, I will ask you to refrain from doing such unnecessary offers.” She told them, her voice was scratchy and a little hoarse; it must have been a long time since she had spoken aloud.</p><p>“Oh, then how about this, you guide us to your boss and we won’t let Manigoldo use his Sekishiki on you.” Dohko quickly proposed, while he wanted to free her too, it was better to stop Hades and whatever scheme he had planned first. They could always go back for her.</p><p>The female specter nodded in response (once, decisively and quickly); and soon they were trailing after her. Her way of walking was fast but firm, ‘She must have navigated these halls hundreds of thousands of times’, the golden saints thought, ‘it must be a torture… having to live in this sinister place’. If she had heard their thoughts she would have laughed, while it was true she missed the sun dearly, she had also always enjoyed nighttime all the more, (no man to tell her off for reading every book in her father’s library, after all).</p><p>Soon they reached double doors, they were craved with unusual motifs, on the bottom and sides: humans, some of them suffering, others perfectly happy; on the center a book with scales on top of its open pages, as if weighting upon the words written. They opened by the middle of the scales and the hushed sound of quills scratching paper welcomed them along with an almost overwhelming smell of ink and paper. The sight wasn’t anything to scoff at either, hundreds, maybe thousands, of women in the same outfit as their guide were writing in blank books, filling them. At, seemly, the end of the main corridor a dais rose from the ground, on top of it an elegantly craved mahogany table, a man with long white hair sat behind it, seemly unaware of their arrival.</p><p>“Ms. Anna, you’re late.” The man called without looking up the book he had open over the table, his skin was fair and youthful. But soon he stopped writing and left the quill next to the book, as he looked up you could see that his cold and aloof face was marred with exhaustion Byaku would dare say, the saints only thought he looked cold. “And these are…?”</p><p>“My sincerest apologies, Lord Lune,” ‘Anna’ curtsied deeply to her superior, he was good, no matter what the rest of the Underworld said about how cold he was or how impatient, if Lune Balrog was anything at all it was patient, for he had to record every single story on the world. To be honest, Anna was even glad when one of the Three Judges had to go out and Lord Lune covered for them, it was a good distraction from recording, as fascinating as it could be. “These… <em>gentlemen</em>,” Anna sent a glare to Kardia and Manigoldo behind her veil, “are Athena’s diplomatic unit.” <em>I think</em> the last part wasn’t actually said.</p><p>“I… see.” Lune’s face contorted for a second like he had bitten a lemon. But, really, the mere thought was ludicrous: Athena, sending a diplomatic unit… Ha. It was so absurd that it wasn’t even funny (Lord Minos would beg to differ, but that did not matter right now). “So, what is the purpose of this <em>diplomatic</em> mission?”</p><p>“GIVE ALONE BACK!” Tenma stomped all the day to the dais, but more than intimidating it looked quite funny, like a cat puffing up in front of a larger predator, Lune had the urge, for the first time in two centuries, to slam someone’s head on the table… or the wall (the wall would be ideal, no one needed the walls to write).</p><p>“Who is this ‘Alone’, then?” Lune asked, patiently, looking up from him and to the other saints.</p><p>Then Manigoldo opened his big, loud, mouth… and fucked up, as usual when you let him deal with specters (or dark saints, but that was once).</p><p>“You sure like to joke, don’t ya?” Manigoldo advanced as he cracked his knuckles menacingly… well, he would be if Lune wasn’t the second in command to Minos, the oldest judge of the Underworld and basically the top of the Specter’s food chain (the only ones above him where the gods of the Underworld and they didn’t like to concern themselves with menial tasks such as managing the Specters, that was Minos’ unofficial job when there was no Pandora, no one liked to hear scream their ears off). Manigoldo looked like some of the street thugs he had seen around while visiting the Earth on a short break, hiding in dark allies, waiting for some poor unfortunate soul to pass a tad too close (he had beaten them to a pulp, but not killing them, it wasn’t their time yet).</p><p>“Lord Lune, if I may…” Anna asked for permission since she knew that all this conversation was disturbing for the rest of her sisters (they were co-workers, but after spending a few hundreds of years together they felt like family, really). Lune inclined his head in acceptance. “They may be talking about the new court painter, the human boy that came a few days ago.”</p><p>It had been a Big Thing <sup>TM</sup> in the Underworld, a human boy becoming the new court painter, of all things! The boy was supposed to be Lord Hades new vessel but the god had laughed at the idea of leaving work and go up to cause trouble, they were too busy for that with the chickenpox disaster up there (too many dead <em>again</em>), why did humans have to be so fragile?! (And in case anyone wondered how they knew what day it was on Earth, well, the record books <em>were</em> more than just book to be filled, each new day came with a date automatically written on the paper).</p><p>Lune looked at the saints and Tenma, who, as usual, boldly declared that yes, that was Alone; then Manigoldo proceeded to keep threatening the Specter, not that it had much effect (Lune could feel a vein throbbing on his forehead). The whitehaired man waved Anna, who curtsied and rushed as quickly and silently as possible to her post, he felt a splitting headache coming and he exactly who he was going to push this big mess to if they finished all his patience.</p><p>“HEY! DON’T IGNORE US, YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Manigoldo screamed, lifting his foot to step on the dais.</p><p>Then they finished Lune’s patience for the day to deal with Athena’s saints (nonexistent in the first place, but… it spoke volumes that the Balrog’s good temper had lasted so long).</p><p>Lune snapped his fingers and saw with pleasure how a wrap door opened under their feet. Ah, how nice of them to scream.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>1, "sleep deities": In SS: The Lost Canvas Gaiden, El Cid saved two of his childhood Friends from Phobetor one of Hypnos’ four children and one of the Dream Gods.<br/>2, "Calvera": Gaiden references.<br/>Long story short, Quetzalcoatl (Calvera) &amp; Tezcatlipoca, two Aztec gods fight, and Kardia &amp; Sasha got caught in the middle of the fight in an impromptu trip to Mexico, for holidays. No, they don’t have any luck. Kind of Kardia’s backstory and Sasha character evolution from child to a goddess.<br/>3, "Luco": Character from SS: The Lost Canvas Gaiden, he’s Albafica’s teacher’s brother. Yes, Albafica had one (1) family: his teacher/adoptive father Pisces Rugonis and one uncle: Rugonis’ twin brother, Luco.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you hadn't read the manga... well, I tried to explain it, mostly. Anyway, beware of spoilers if you're gonna read it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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